Comments on: A Blizzard-like Stormhttp://www.alphadictionary.com/blog/?p=356
A Blog about Words and Language(s) from alphaDictionary.comTue, 15 Nov 2016 00:51:25 +0000hourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5By: Brian Johnsonhttp://www.alphadictionary.com/blog/?p=356&cpage=1#comment-149493
Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:38:37 +0000http://www.alphadictionary.com/blog/?p=356#comment-149493According to Wikipedia, the meteorology services in the US, Canada and the UK all have different definitions of “blizzard.” There seem to be five criteria: Wind speed (ws), visability (v), duration of windspeed equal to or greater than the ws criterium (d), temperature or wind chill (t) and snow which is further subdivided into falling snow (fs) and blowing snow (bs)
(in the following “-” means “not stated”
US:
ws>56km/h, v3hr, t -, fs -, bs yes
Canada
ws>40km/h, v3hr, t48km/h, v moderate bs –

Since you live in the US, maybe the paper means a storm that would qualify as a blizzard in another jurisdiction but does not satisfy the US definition. Or perhaps a storm that has
ws=41km/h, v=399m, d=2:59, t=-14C (air temp = -5C, ws=41), sf=moderate

These conditions would not satisfy any definition, but would probably be pretty severe weather to be out and about.